The Little World

Note: This is the post I meant to put up today…but failed to find. I repeated myself re. the Spitfire, so I have taken down the morning’s column and published this one instead.

Not a straight line anywhere on this plane, I should think. But that’s not a bad thing – there were few straight lines on Diana Dors, Jayne Mansfield, or Sophia Loren, either. And no-one complained.

This model is the second of the gift pair that I received in Sydney whilst on holiday earlier in the year. Like its Matchbox companion, it had set undisturbed through the adolescence of a friend and was now ready to either fly or die. I have great hopes that it will be the former, so to speak.

We’re talking about a 1960 kit eventually released in a succession of new boxes. It’s the pre-production NA.39 version so the markings are accurate, but for a prototype. Not that the markings may work, being 1960 decals…But the plastic is well-formed and free of distortion. The fuselage halves mate and nothing is missing. In this case many of the major parts are off their sprues.

The landing gear is commendably sturdy, if basic. The aircraft is the size of a twin-engine bomber, so I appreciate the gear legs.

The fuselage is empty, however, save the very basic flight deck. The crewmen are a little undersize, but then you expect that with the English. And if they couldn’t take a joke , they shouldn’t have joined.

Those are the rejection seats, by the way. Martin-Baker have asked that their name be kept out of it.

The decals are unique to this prototype, and if I can save them it will make the gift kit all that much sweeter. I’ve staked them out and oversprayed with an acrylic lacquer in the hope that they will float off the paper in one piece. The surface of the model will be extra glossy anyway.

Note that Airfix are one of the few model making firms who realised that the British aircraft of the 50’s and 60’s were largely clockwork powered and that the RAF and RN ground crews used to wind them up before every flight. They have included a winding key in this model.